My friend Dr. Bob Gonzales is the Academic Dean at Reformed Baptist Seminary, whose upstate SC modules meet down the street from my neighborhood. He’s asked me to deliver two little lectures at their upcoming module, and they say “auditors are invited.” I think that...
ChurchLife
1 Marks Interview Series: Kerry McGonigal, Preaching and Teaching Preaching
Right click here to download the interview. In the first installment of the 1Marks interview series, I spoke with Dr. Robert Bell about Old Testament stuff. In the second, I spoke with one of my pastors, Dr. Robert Vincent, about church and personal evangelism. Today...
Cleveland Park Bible Church’s New Website (Pastor Ken Casillas)
Check out the new website I made for Dr. Ken Casillas and the friendly folks at Cleveland Park Bible Church. And watch the video I created with the help of a Nikon D3100, a Zoom H2, Adobe LightRoom, and Final Cut Pro X:
Two Questions for KJVOs
1. Has anyone else noticed that the standard language in the doctrinal statement of Crown College (and the approximately 130 other churches and ministries that use it verbatim) is inherently contradictory? "The King James Version of the Bible is the only English...
Nick Kristof Is Right and (A Lot of) TV Preachers Are Wrong
Kristof says: Centuries ago, serious religious study was extraordinarily demanding and rigorous; in contrast, anyone could declare himself a scientist and go in the business of, say, alchemy. These days, it’s the reverse. A Ph.D. in chemistry is a rigorous degree,...
1Marks Interview Series
Some moons ago, I interviewed Dr. Robert Bell in the first of what I hoped would become a 1Marks Interview Series. It is now officially a series, because Dr. Robert Vincent agreed to sit with me for an hour-long interview (right click link; choose "Save Target As")...
My Ideal Bible?
I think the ESV folks may be coming out with the preaching and reading Bible I’ve been looking for. They’re calling it the Single Column Legacy Bible. The text isn’t cluttered with superscript references or even a reference column to the side—the only downfalls of my...
Antidisclaimer
After a while, reading and writing disclaimers about theological books gets to be a real annoyance. “Of course, I don’t agree with everything this book says, but I still think it’s worth a read.” “Naturally, I take exception to some of this writer’s assertions.” “I...
Wise Advice On The Balance Between Submission to Leaders and Personal Responsibility
The church must balance analytical independence (1 Thess. 5:21) with submissiveness to its leaders (1 Thess. 5:13; Heb. 13:7, 17; Gal. 1:8–9). We “obey [our] leaders” and we “test everything.” Yet we test humbly, reticent to question pastors who have been called by...
American Israelism
I recently stumbled across a Christian radio station broadcasting on the Internet. Its origin is the far-right, King-James-Only sector of Protestant (make that Baptist—they’ve forgotten that they’re Protestants) fundamentalism. A perky choir was singing the following:...
Edwards on Church Music, the Ordinances, and our Affections
The “sacraments” or “ordinances” of baptism and the Lord’s Supper are, in part, little pieces of art: miniature dramas that highlight precious truths. They are parallel in a significant way to church music, as Jonathan Edwards explains in his classic book, The...
Kevin Bauder on Anti-Intellectualism
Years ago, Kevin Bauder’s address “A Fundamentalism Worth Saving” was helpful and influential for me. Recently, I found my mind going back to some of the points in a Nick of Time article he just put out. I have a feeling these thoughts will stick with me, too:...